Our new bakfiets has been ordered and will be ready by the end of March. In the end, the order went to WorkCycles. The shop is up in Zeeburg, which isn’t exactly our neighbourhood, and that’s the reason we hadn’t already been there to have a look.
However, when Henry, the owner, commented on a recent blog entry of mine, it was the nudge I needed to get on the bike and head over there. I’d already been impressed with the information on his shop’s Web site and the knowledge evident from his blog, so I realised we’d actually be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t at least go and have a look.
Henry’s a bit of an oddball in the Dutch cycling world, as an American who lives in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, he thoroughly understands the concept of the bakfiets and appreciates even those bicycle parts that are quite uncommon in his fatherland, such as the trusty dynamo.
We’d already decided on a CargoBike Long as our next bike, so we were mostly interested in Henry’s customisations. In other words, apart from the promise of excellent service, why buy a bike from him instead of a shop closer to home?
For a start, his bikes look very distinctive. The frames are two-tone, which Henry explained is virtually dictated by practical necessity. He orders the frames pre-coated with an anti-rust layer. Once the top layer has gone on, you can’t tell his frames apart from untreated ones. Therefore, the only way he can be sure that they don’t get mixed up at the factory — resulting in his being supplied with untreated frames — is to order them in unique colour combinations. No other shop orders frames in this style.
Amongst other things, Henry fits an 8 speed internal Shimano gear hub and a riser for the MaxiCosi car-seat. This allows the child on the bench to slide its feet under the riser. The riser does get in the way of the optional second bench, but it can be removed when the child outgrows the MaxiCosi and can be tolerated for incidental use of the second bench.
Bike shops often devise their own method of securing the MaxiCosi car-seat, as there’s no perfect solution to the problem of securing the baby, whilst maximising space in the box.
The standard MaxiCosi seat brace takes up so much room in the box, that a second child can hardly fit on the rear bench, never mind a front bench. Many shops therefore reject the idea of the brace, most preferring to simply fit a seat-belt that is then fastened across the base of the car-seat. That’s fine, but then there’s nowhere for a child on a front bench to put its feet. Henry’s riser is a good solution to this problem, even if it’s still not ideal.
On the subject of bikes, I bought Eloïse a LIKEaBIKE yesterday. These are lovely, if expensive, wooden bikes from Germany with proper tyres and adjustable saddle height. She seems very happy with it and has already noticeably improved as a rider in the few hours that she’s had it.